


if you could tell me how you're feeling

by alainey



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Mistletoe, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22683730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alainey/pseuds/alainey
Summary: There’s mistletoe all over Garreg Mach.Felix isn’t sure who put it up, but the number of chaste, giggly kisses stolen around the monastery has increased exponentially since its introduction, and Felix has found the new development extremely difficult to ignore.-Just a simple 5+1 fic with mistletoe thrown into the mix. (Sylvain kisses Felix five times before Felix finally gets the chance to kiss him back.)
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 13
Kudos: 207





	if you could tell me how you're feeling

There’s mistletoe all over Garreg Mach. 

Felix isn’t sure who put it up, but the number of chaste, giggly kisses stolen around the monastery has increased exponentially since its introduction, and Felix has found the new development extremely difficult to ignore.

Normally, Felix wouldn’t care. He’d let his classmates have their fun, and he wouldn’t judge them for having it - after all, it was their choice what they did with their free time (and it was Felix’s choice to spend that time training).

But this week has been different. It has been annoying and difficult for an entirely different reason than whatever disapproval he might feel for his classmates’ choice of pastime. And that reason - like so many of Felix’s other problems - lies with Sylvain.

For Sylvain, the teasing, terrible bastard, has seemed to have made it his own personal mission to intercept Felix around every corner - particularly, around every corner with _mistletoe._

It has happened five times thus far, and Felix has had just about enough.

i.

The first time Sylvain kisses him, it’s a kiss to Felix’s hand.

“Huh, would you look at that -” Sylvain had said, grin wide as he looked up at the mistletoe that he’d just pulled the both of them under, “- mistletoe!” 

Had he the chance, Felix would have protested. After all, the mistletoe wouldn’t have been an issue had Sylvain not _dragged them both under it,_ yet Felix had felt the sudden press of Sylvain’s lips to the knuckles of his hand, and suddenly all the snide comments that had been threatening to spill from his mouth had dispersed into thin air. 

Sylvain had been soft and careful with his kiss - the hand he’d pulled Felix aside with warm and featherlight in its grip upon Felix’s own - and Felix had watched him for a moment, eyeing the way Sylvain’s fiery bangs had brushed up against the pale length of his wrist, before pulling away with a scowl, cheeks flushed and tongue-tied.

He’d left Sylvain to his whims in a huff, and had tried not to think about the imprint of Sylvain’s lips on the back of his hand for the entire rest of the day.

ii.

The second time Sylvain kisses him, it’s a kiss to the forehead. 

After Sylvain had pulled him under the mistletoe for the first time, Felix had found himself on edge. He’d spent the night confused and fidgety, and had done his best to push the event to the very back of his mind. 

The likelihood that Sylvain had pulled him aside just to mess with him was - in Felix’s mind - very high; after all, messing with Felix was simply something that Sylvain did best. This bit with the mistletoe - as intimate and straightforward as it was - could surely be no different. Felix had settled upon that explanation with a decisive scoff, and had fallen asleep not long afterwards. 

The next afternoon, Sylvain cornered him again.

“Mistletoe,” he had said with a shrug, hands soft in their cupping of Felix’s face. Felix had looked up at him with wide eyes as Sylvain had bent down - further and further - and Felix had been stuck by how incredibly tall Sylvain had grown since back when they were kids. 

Sylvain’s lips had pressed hot against Felix’s forehead, and Felix had stood before him, mind slack. Sylvain’s hands had dropped from Felix’s cheeks a second later, yet inexplicably, his lips had remained. 

Felix could very easily have jumped back in that moment, yet he stood there a second longer, face red and heart beating wildly. It had only been once Sylvain had exhaled softly - breath ghosting against Felix’s hairline - that Felix had pulled away, eyes flitting aside in their inability to meet Sylvain’s gaze.

“What is _with_ you?” Felix had hissed, all bark and no bite as he pushed his way past Sylvain to the other side of the corridor.

Sylvain had said nothing in reply, yet when Felix had glanced back - his mouth pulled into a thin, quiet line - Sylvain had still been watching him.

iii.

The third time Sylvain kisses him, it’s after a full day of avoiding him by holing up in his room.

(Felix had had no reason to leave, and so he hadn’t. That had been all there was to it.)

Sylvain had found him on his way to the kitchens later that night - a hunger in his bones and a scowl across his face. Felix had stopped just short of running into the other boy as he turned the corner down the stairs from his dorm, and the two of them had stared at each other - Felix in exasperation and Sylvain in surprise - for a single short moment.

Then Felix’s eyes had glanced upwards, to where - _Goddess be damned_ \- a single sprig of mistletoe had been innocuously hung. When Felix had looked back down to Sylvain’s face, he had found Sylvain smiling: a small, sheepish grin. 

And _oh,_ Felix thought, as Sylvain had started to lean in. _This is it._

Sylvain had leaned in to him, Felix had watched him go, and Sylvain’s third kiss had been sweet, chaste, and pressed - ever so lightly - against the skin of Felix’s cheek. 

His _cheek._

Sylvain had pulled away with his small, lopsided grin, before murmuring a soft _goodnight._ By the time that Felix had gathered his thoughts well enough to react, Sylvain had already brushed past him, boots clacking lightly as he made his way up the dormitory stairs.

 _A kiss goodnight,_ Felix had thought slowly, before turning his burning face away from Sylvain’s retreating back and stalking off to the kitchens. An odd sort of disappointment had settled in his gut, yet Felix pushed it away, writing the feeling off as nothing more than a side effect of his hunger. In the end, Felix couldn’t bring himself to touch at the place where Sylvain had kissed him - not until long after he had returned from the kitchens to the solitude of his room.

iv.

The next morning, Felix had headed straight to the training grounds after breakfast. Classes be damned - he’d needed it.

By the time Sylvain had found him there, Felix had been working his body to the bone for a solid half day: sweat dripping from his brow, dirt dusting his clothes, and various scrapes from one fall too many littering the white of his forearms. 

Sylvain had looked at him for less than a second before sighing, prying Felix’s sword from his hand and maneuvering him to the edge of the grounds. Felix had let him for no reason other than it was Sylvain, and Sylvain’s face had been pulled into a tight, pinched frown - an expression so unlike the sly grins that Felix had been getting for the last three days. 

The scrapes along Felix’s arms weren’t terrible - nothing that a short trip to the infirmary wouldn’t have fixed - yet Sylvain had insisted on cleaning them then and there. Felix had paused, a rude remark at the tip of his tongue, yet swallowed his words at the look in Sylvain’s eyes. Shakily, he had nodded, and Sylvain had set to task. 

Sylvain had cradled Felix’s wrist as he wrapped the scrape up with a thin white handkerchief that he’d pulled from his pocket. Felix had watched him work, eyebrows furrowed, yet had said nothing the entire time. Any words he’d tried to speak had just gotten stuck in his throat on their way out. 

When Sylvain kisses him for the fourth time, Felix is wholly expectant. 

Sylvain had gripped his wrist lightly as he’d finished dressing the wounds, and had brought Felix’s wrist up to his lips with a small smile sent Felix’s way. His lips had been only a slight pressure against the handkerchief wrapped around his wrist, yet Felix’s blood had rushed to his face at the contact. Sylvain had stayed kissing his wrist for as long as it took Felix to pull himself away, and Felix rushed from the training grounds with his heart beating wildly in his chest.

Felix had headed to the infirmary afterwards, getting all of his scrapes healed but one.

 _Had there even been mistletoe above them?_ Felix had wondered, and later that night, he hadn’t been able to recall.

v.

Sylvain’s fifth kiss had been almost traditional in its execution. Almost, _almost._

Felix had awoken the next morning with a fluttering feeling deep in his gut.

 _Will he try to kiss me properly?_ he had wondered. _Hand, forehead, cheek, wrist - there weren’t many other places to go, were there?_

And so, after class that afternoon, when Sylvain had slung his arm comfortably across Felix’s shoulders as they two of them walked outside, Felix had let him. He allowed himself to be maneuvered carefully underneath a small alcove of the monastery - one that he knew had mistletoe strung carefully above it - and had resolutely pushed down the bubbling anticipation that had settled in his gut.

“Oh!” Sylvain had grinned, as soon as they’d arrived, “would you look at that - mistletoe!”

Felix hadn’t even looked up. He’d just stared at Sylvain out from the corner of his eye, watching as the other boy had unwrapped his arm from Felix’s shoulders and turned round to face him. 

“Chin up,” Sylvain had said, hands soft as they cupped at Felix’s cheeks. Felix looks up at him, chin raised, and lets his eyes flutter closed.

And then Sylvain, that _bastard,_ had kissed him happily upon the nose.

v + i.

So yes - Felix has had enough.

Enough of Sylvain’s flirty, teasing kisses that toe the line of what Felix really wants. Enough of the other boy’s foolishness: his forehead kisses, his _nose_ kisses, his stupid, sheepish grin. 

Felix blinks his eyes open as Sylvain pulls away - a light flush spreading across his face - and grits his teeth against the frustration.

“You are the _worst,_ ” Felix grits out, one hand coming up to grip at Sylvain’s jaw. Sylvain looks suddenly nervous - his eyes going wide and his cheeks becoming gradually more flushed - and Felix stares him down with a bitter scowl. 

“Are you making fun of me?” he continues, tongue sharp. “Or just trying to annoy me?”

Sylvain’s eyebrows furrow, dark eyes confused as they meet with Felix’s. “Ah, neither -” he starts, his voice strained, “I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Then how in the world did you mean it?” Felix spits, and Sylvain flushes more, gaze fixing steadily on the space to the right of Felix’s face. Felix keeps his grip solidly upon Sylvain’s chin, and watches as Sylvain starts and stops his reply three times in the span of a minute. 

_It really is a bit pitiful,_ Felix wonders, _how terrible Sylvain is at this - once he finally gets down to it._

After a few more failed attempts at an answer, Felix finally drops his hand from Sylvain’s face. He lets out a frustrated sigh, before grabbing Sylvain by his collar, pulling him down, and pressing a rough kiss against the other boy’s lips. 

Sylvain goes stiff, the hands that had been cupping Felix’s face falling loose around his neck. Felix kisses him hard - a bruising, punishing kiss - before stepping back with a scowl and leveling Sylvain with the most terrifying gaze he can muster.

“If you want so badly to kiss me, learn to do it properly,” Felix snaps, willing his hands not to shake as they grip at Sylvain’s uniform. He can feel another flush coming on - the sudden consequences of his actions immediately going to his head - but he grits his teeth and stares Sylvain down with a courage only befitting of his house name.

Sylvain blinks, mouth working numbly around silent words, before his face pulls into a startling, wonderful grin. “I’m not quite sure I’d call that ‘properly,’ Fe -” he says slowly, and Felix glowers harder, flush creeping down his neck. Sylvain returns his hands to Felix’s cheeks, warm and careful as ever, and leans back in. “How ‘bout we try that again?”

v + ii.

Sylvain kisses him slowly, softly - just as careful as he had been with each of his kisses in the past - and Felix finds himself smiling, grin pressed sweetly into Sylvain’s lips. 

This time, it’s Sylvain who pulls back, and Felix snorts at the heady wonder that he sees in his best friend’s face. Sylvain grins back, eyes crinkling at the edges, and leans forward to bump his forehead against Felix’s own.

v + iii.

“You’re an idiot,” Felix breathes out, “and you should be grateful I didn’t punch you the first time you tried to kiss me.”

“It was a calculated risk,” Sylvain replies smartly, and Felix lets out an undignified snort, their noses bumping together as he pulls Sylvain into another quick kiss. 

And Felix stops counting their kisses, after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Mistletoe fic in February? Not as crazy as you might think!
> 
> I started writing this back in December, then dropped it due to the holidays. I became overcome with inspiration to finish it last night, so I apologize in advance for any glaring issues in grammar/flow that I may have missed during my editing once-over this morning. (One day, I'll find myself a real beta!)
> 
> That said, thanks for reading! The story isn't terribly very deep and I don't go too far into their feelings for each other, but I still hope you enjoyed! You can find me [here](https://twitter.com/alainey_lee) on twitter.


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